GUNNER EMERY
Ex-PSG boss beats Arteta to land top job
UNAI EMERY is to be confirmed as the new manager of Arsenal after a day of talks in London concluded with him saying yes to the role of replacing Arsene Wenger.
Sportsmail revealed yesterday that Emery, 46, was emerging as a late contender for the job.
A contract for the Spanish-born former boss of Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Spartak Moscow was being thrashed out last night by Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis.
It is believed that Emery has agreed to work under a tight transfer budget and strict controls from the board. But his promise of how he likes his teams to play is sure to excite Arsenal supporters.
‘Fans want their emotions to come to the surface and the only way to way to make that happen is to give them a team that transmits emotion: intensity, attacking, scoring goals, competing, fighting,’ he wrote in a recent book. ‘That awakens them. The fans want emotions.’ Emery left his role as
IF THE new Arsenal manager Unai Emery shares one thing in common with his predecessor Arsene Wenger, it may be a distinct intolerance for the whims of Jose Mourinho.
Wenger seldom gave the impression he had much time at all for Mourinho’s Machiavellian tendencies and Emery’s distaste revealed itself after Real Madrid beat Sevilla in 2010. Mourinho entered the post-match press conference waving a piece of note paper onto which he had bullet-pointed 13 errors supposedly made by referee Carlos Clos Gomez.
Emery, who managed Valencia at the time, was asked for his view of Mourinho’s hysterics. ‘Mourinho’s stance is that of a crybaby,’ Emery concluded. ‘We have reasons to draw up a list with errors and to make a public complaint for every time we have been adversely affected, but we don’t.’
So there is one to file away and look forward to next season. He also retains some bragging rights over Jurgen Klopp, after defeating Liverpool in the 2016 Europa League final.
Emery, the 46-year-old Spaniard yesterday appointed as Arsenal’s new manager, can expect a warmer welcome elsewhere. He has a strong friendship with Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola and Emery is one of the very few coaches often invited for a postmatch glass of wine with the Catalan during his time managing Barcelona.
Emery earned Guardiola’s admiration with a vibrant brand of football that took Valencia into the Champions League before then winning three consecutive Europa League trophies with Sevilla. In Andalucia, Emery developed a reputation as one of Europe’s most studious coaches. In Spain, he admitted to working until 2am most evenings before rising again within six hours to do it all over again. Along with his video analysts, Emery (below) will spend up to twelve hours working on the cut. Players are loaded with information, both in the video suite at the training ground and then as a going-home present. ‘There were so many videos I ran out of popcorn,’ his former Valencia winger Joaquin joked. Yet upon joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2016, Emery’s great step forwards became an exercise in crisis management. Having proved his Europa League credentials in Seville, his task was to elevate PSG to the continental elite by winning the Champions League. Two calamitous defeats first the infamous 6-1 in Barcelona and then this year’s meek capitulation to Real Madrid, ensured his time in Paris would be shortlived. The reverses against Spain’s foremost sides enacted reputational damage back home in Iberia. As Emery’s PSG career meandered towards its conclusion, a return to Spain was barely mentioned. In France, there is only mild admiration for a coach who won the domestic title this season when he failed to extract the most from a side that featured showbiz talents such as Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. The relationship with Neymar cast a dark shadow over Emery’s aspirations. From early on, a suspicion set in that Neymar considered himself to be above the manager’s methods. The long and exacting video analysis sessions were deemed too dull. Emery, for his part, was left exasperated when Neymar began to travel with his own wash bag, rather than the club’s version that every other player used.
The Paris soap opera is a long way from Emery’s own roots. The son and grandson of footballers, Emery believes in the game’s core values. He endured a modest playing career, with only five top-flight games for Real Sociedad in 1995 before beginning his managerial career as player-manager of third division Lorca. He achieved promotion there and took Almeria up to La Liga for the first time in the club’s history.
At Valencia, Emery collaborated over a book called ‘Winning mentality: the Emery method’.
Emery said: ‘Fans want their emotions to come to the surface and the only to way to make that happen is to give them a team that transmits emotion: intensity, attacking, scoring goals, competing, fighting.
‘That awakens them. The fans want emotions. The Champions League generates more money and allows you to buy better players but what fans really want is to enjoy their team, to win things. If you have money but you don’t generate feeling and emotion, it’s worthless.
‘You can be in the Champions League and generate money but if you get knocked out in the group it means nothing to the fans. Sure, you’ve made £20m, but what does that mean to them?’
Those words, surely, will resonate with many on the Arsenal terraces. Emery has long mulled over a move to England.
He speaks some English but showed in France that he learns a language quickly and he previously turned down interest from Everton and West Ham before joining PSG.
Now, his time has come.